My name is _[NAME]_ and I am a librarian at _[INSTITUTION]_. Hopefully you're not picturing a sweater-vest wearing, tight-bun-in-the-hair, shushing librarian; today's librarians are vastly different than the stereotype you see in movies and on TV.

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That's partially why I'm writing you. We need bright minds and new ideas in libraries, and we don't want the stereotype to make highly qualified people turn down a library career.

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Libraries require people who:

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* love technology

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* have compassion and empathy

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* are insatiably curious

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* possess uncommon intellect

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* are service-oriented, patient, and persistent

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* have good communication skills

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Please share the attached information with students that you think match this description, and visit our website - http://librarycareers.org/ - for more information on types of library careers, types of libraries, and what makes the library a vibrant, engaging, exciting place to work.

Latest revision as of 15:42, 10 November 2009

The Group With No Name (formerly Team P) met on 1/23/09 and used the project planning handout to create ground rules, discuss individual strengths/weaknesses, choose communication tools and outline the next steps for the project. The project's three focus areas consist of:

prioritizing the 2007 marketing plan for LibraryCareers.org

brainstorming new possiilities and opportunities for the website

creating a concrete display for the poster session at ALA annual in July.

The GWNN's first step will be to read the marketing plan created by the 2007 EL group and make notes/observations in GoogleDocs, and follow up with a Skype discussion of these observations at 9:30 a.m. on Sat. 1/31.

First Draft of Goals and Deadlines

Short Term Goals

1. Creating a Logo for LibraryCareers.org

a) Before we take efforts to publicize and market this website, it is necessary to create a logo for LibraryCareers.org (Eric)

2. E-mail Publicity Completion: April 1 – July 5, 2009

Send publicity e-mails to and request the

a) ALA Divisions, Roundtables, ACRL sections, and ALA JobList to provide web linking to LibraryCareers.org (Chella)
b) Career Centers of various schools to provide web linking to LibraryCareers.org (Eric)
c) Library Schools in the U.S. to provide web linking to LibraryCareers.org (Chella)

a) Online Publication: This can be a brochure that can be created by our group (if time permits). Or, in future, another group can work on it and make it available on the www.librarycareers.org for Career Center, Library Schools, ACRL Divisions, etc. to distribute.

Long Term Goals

5. Product Multimedia Completion: Not sure how much time is required

a) Leigh Anne suggested the possibility of doing a two-minute “tell us about your job session.” We can try doing this at the 2009 ALA Annual. If we manage make a few videos, we are hoping that the next group that takes on this project would be able to organize the content and put them up on the website.

6. Other Web 2.0 Marketing

Any group that takes up this project in future may consider the following options. These are only suggestions that we realize that these may change and depend on what
social media are popular in future.

a) Second Life Expansion Completion: Varies

b) Hold an emerging leaders meeting discussing LibraryCareers.org in Second Life and post graphics as customization option in Second Life on Information Island. Members of ALA Emerging Leaders program will create this event.

c) Web 2.0 Marketing Completion: Varies

Expand Web 2.0 marketing by reciprocal promotion with blogs and feeds to librarians and those connected to the profession including http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/ and eye4youalliance.youthtech.info . ALA ITTS Web development group will post leads from Emerging Leaders Group DD.

7. Place

Usability Study Completion: Varies

Usability study will be contracted through ALA ITTS a LibraryCareers.org committee to track number of unique visitors, length of time a visitor remains on site, and the referring site. Study will assess need for site feedback from visitors and suggest options. Future plans can target Instituting an annual search engine optimization plan from study results. Limited user-based testing or a series of heuristic design reviews are recommended.

Site Navigation Completion: Varies
Navigation in the “Getting a Little Help Along The Way” section should be rebranded into two new sections 1) Connecting to Your Library Community and 2) Assistance and Resources. Restructure will include listing all 50 states alphabetically. Individual state links would expand to reveal links to the corresponding state library, state organizations; schools within each state. Regional recruitment and job search sites should also be included in this section. Content should include national ALA job openings to local information for public, academic and special libraries.

Deliverables and Presentation (will be completed by June 30, 2009)

Our project deliverables are:

1) Message/E-mail Templates sent by Eric Frierson and Chella Vaidyanathan to different units, schools, career centers, etc. requesting them to provide a link to the librarycareers.org website

5) Two other deliverables are as follows (copied and pasted from May 23rd Skype Meeting notes):

a. "Using RSS feeds from searches in ALA JobList to bring dynamic content to the site"
b. "Using RSS feeds from a 'library career' search in YouTube to bring in video"

Overview of Presentation: Poster Info Here

Our poster will be a three-paneled display. The left panel will highlight the 2007 Emerging Leaders' work, and the current LibraryCareers.org website. The middle panel will describe our task: prioritizing the 2007 plan. We will talk about our justification for the priorities we set, including the realities of the staffing and budget levels for the site. Our emphasis will be on highlighting low-effort, high-return opportunities for the site and things that need to be done at some point for the site's survival. Our last panel will include those things we have finished and accomplished, including e-mail message templates for library schools and career centers, improvements to the website using RSS feeds and some static content updating, and the new logo.

May 23rd Skype Call

Ideas: Using RSS feeds from searches in ALA JobList to bring dynamic content to the site; using RSS feeds from a 'library career' search in YouTube to bring in video

We need low effort, high-return projects, as LibraryCareers.org does not have a dedicated staff or budget.

We will design a brochure if there is time to included with e-mails to Career Centers and Library Schools.

My name is _[NAME]_ and I am a librarian at _[INSTITUTION]_. Hopefully you're not picturing a sweater-vest wearing, tight-bun-in-the-hair, shushing librarian; today's librarians are vastly different than the stereotype you see in movies and on TV.

That's partially why I'm writing you. We need bright minds and new ideas in libraries, and we don't want the stereotype to make highly qualified people turn down a library career.

Please share the attached information with students that you think match this description, and visit our website - http://librarycareers.org/ - for more information on types of library careers, types of libraries, and what makes the library a vibrant, engaging, exciting place to work.